William Pole (antiquary)

During his life Pole wrote many unpublished manuscripts containing his researches into the history and antiquities of Devon and the descents of that county's ancient families, their landholdings and heraldry.

These documents laid the foundation not only for future historians of the county but also for his contemporaries, such as Tristram Risdon (died 1640) who acknowledged the help he had received from Pole's compilations.

[11] His contemporary and fellow researcher into the history of Devonshire Tristram Risdon (d.1640), wrote as follows of Pole:[12] He was the most accomplished treasurer of the antiquities of this county [...] Such a gift had he of rare memory, that he would have recited upon a sudden the descents of most eminent families; from whose lamp I have received light in these my labours.Today, Pole's collections are considered to be valuable records of otherwise lost documents,[13] though as Youings wrote in 1996: "being a man of his time, the material was largely concerned with the genealogy and landed possessions of Devon's aristocracy and gentry, and he found no place for the rest of society".

[citation needed] Pole died on 9 February 1635, aged 73, at his home Colcombe Castle, in the parish of Colyton, to which he had retired leaving Shute for the occupation of his son John.

He was buried in the west side of the chancel in Colyton church, in the floor of which exists a simple ledger stone, with an inscription now much worn.